EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in an occasional series about the Pennacook Indians, who lived in this area before the city of Nashua was formed.

Among the Pennacook, as with all Native Peoples, everyone had their jobs to do. Each one of these jobs was equally important for the well-being of a particular village.

Within a village, one of the most important jobs was that of a healer, a position that was mainly held by women highly trained in the use of medicinal herbs and plants. Today, we would call these people doctors.

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Sacred Circle Project has begun its search for the NWT's first-ever aboriginal princess, with the non-profit organization planning to crown the winner on National Aboriginal Day. The pageant - the brainchild of Lila Erasmus, project manager for the Sacred Circle Project - will aim to anoint an aboriginal woman, aged 16-21, with career aspirations, leadership chops and a solid supply of traditional skills.

How far would you travel to heal someone you love? An intensely personal yet epic spiritual journey, THE HORSE BOY follows one Texas couple and their autistic son as they trek on horseback through Outer Mongolia, in a desperate attempt to treat his condition with shamanic healing.

A complex condition that can dramatically affect social interaction and communication skills, autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability today. After two-year-old Rowan Isaacson was diagnosed with autism, he ceased speaking, retreated into himself for hours at a time, and often screamed inconsolably for no apparent reason. Rupert Isaacson, a writer and former horse trainer, and his wife Kristin Neff, a psychologist.

Here's a statistic I find pretty sobering: of more than 200 Indigenous languages spoken on the Australian continent before European settlement, fewer than 20 are still in daily use, and even these are endangered.

Once a people's language dies out, a vital part of their culture and identity is lost forever. That's why it's great to hear about Waabiny Time, a new show on the National Indigenous Television channel, which aims to get kids started with learning and using the Noongar language of south-west Western Australia.